During this visit, you should work with one or more groups of students if you haven't already, and observe your teacher doing the same. For this journal entry, describe your teacher's teaching style. What type of relationships with students does he or she nurture in his or her classes? How do students perceive that power is distributed in the classes? Does this vary within or across the different classes the teacher has? Cite examples from your observations to support your inferences. Remember to reflect on what style of teaching you will gravitate toward and the how you want to be perceived by your students.
My high school CT at Central Falls High School is very engaging with his students, especially his AP bio students because he's had them all in class before. With his regular biology class of juniors, when he's lecturing he's walking around the front of the classroom, but when he has them doing small group work or labs he walks around to check on the groups. He jokes with them, he asks them questions, and he makes sure they're all working. For groups/individual students that are really struggling, he will sit down with them and go through the question step-by-step so they understand it. The students know they can joke around with him, but they also really respect him and listens when he tells them they need to. He has a similar policy with his Anatomy students, but he holds them to a higher standard because they are all seniors. He expects more of them and he expects them to ask when they need help because Anatomy is an elective and therefore they chose to take the class. His AP class is probably the most relaxed and yet the most challenging at the same time. He has the top students in the school in that class, so he lets them manage themselves, and he also teaches them the most rigorous information out of his three classes. He has a lot of respect for all of his students, regardless of what class they're in, but with his lower level students he gives a lot more support and guidance. Once I've been teaching for a few years I hope I'll get to have an advanced/honors/AP class that I get to teach, and I would want to take the same approach that I'm seeing now. The more advanced students need less guidance and assistance and are very self-motivated, so I would let them have that independence. The lower level students I would definitely provide more support and guidance to, but I would hope all of my students would feel comfortable asking questions and joking around with me so that they know I respect them regardless of what level they're at.
My high school CT at Central Falls High School is very engaging with his students, especially his AP bio students because he's had them all in class before. With his regular biology class of juniors, when he's lecturing he's walking around the front of the classroom, but when he has them doing small group work or labs he walks around to check on the groups. He jokes with them, he asks them questions, and he makes sure they're all working. For groups/individual students that are really struggling, he will sit down with them and go through the question step-by-step so they understand it. The students know they can joke around with him, but they also really respect him and listens when he tells them they need to. He has a similar policy with his Anatomy students, but he holds them to a higher standard because they are all seniors. He expects more of them and he expects them to ask when they need help because Anatomy is an elective and therefore they chose to take the class. His AP class is probably the most relaxed and yet the most challenging at the same time. He has the top students in the school in that class, so he lets them manage themselves, and he also teaches them the most rigorous information out of his three classes. He has a lot of respect for all of his students, regardless of what class they're in, but with his lower level students he gives a lot more support and guidance. Once I've been teaching for a few years I hope I'll get to have an advanced/honors/AP class that I get to teach, and I would want to take the same approach that I'm seeing now. The more advanced students need less guidance and assistance and are very self-motivated, so I would let them have that independence. The lower level students I would definitely provide more support and guidance to, but I would hope all of my students would feel comfortable asking questions and joking around with me so that they know I respect them regardless of what level they're at.